St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-10
A TROUBLESOME BONUS.
The Citizens of Rapid City at a
Loss to Know What to Do With
q LEFTOVER" Fund.


Loss to Know What to Do With
''Left.Over' Fund.
Special to the Globe
RAPID CITY, Sept. 9.-Two years ago,
when the citizens sought ways and
means to raise the $4,000 to secure the
inevitable Elkhorn road, they obtained
the vote of the people to bond the city
for so-called park improvements. The
proceeds of these bonds, with individual
donations, more than suff1ced the ''hold-
up" of the railroad, and $4,000 was left
in the hands of the railroad committee.
There it remained until last spring. At
that time E. B. Chapman's narrow-gauge
enterprise, the Rapid City, Wyoming &
Western, came up. Mr.. Chapman asked
the city to pledge a bounty of $4,000 in
aid of this enterprise, which was
promptly done by Supplementing indi
3idual subscriptions with the leftover
railroad fund of the previous year.
Chapman has gone ahead and made his
surveys, secured right of way, ETC., but
for several weeks past has made no
movement towards beginning the grade.
AS the bonus was to be paid only upon
the completion of each mile of track the
citizens have been called upon to pay
y
lying idle in the bank-Something that
is peculiarly tantalizing to live West
ern community; in fact, is 'sintOlerable
and not to be endured. At a called meet
ing of citizens last week for no an
nounced object, it was voted
TO RESCIND THE ACTION
pledging this money to the Rapid City,
Wyoming g. Western railroad and give
$4,000 of it to the fair association and
the balance, $500 to the board of trade
to be used in making the exhibit of
Black Hills products at Omaha and
Kansas City, and for other purposes.
This action has evoked considerable
controversy, referring both to the char
who object question the competency of
small number, assembled for no such
ayowed purpose, to reverse the action
of a large maSSmeeting assembled for
the advertised purpose Of raising funds
for the narrOw-guage road, and they
warmly denOunce the bad faith implied
in withdrawing funds pledged to that
enterprise and spending them for pur-
poses that they declare of less general
and important public benefit. The
friends of the action say that the funds
have been only borrowed; that the
pledge to the narrow-guage road shall
DG iHdu6 SOOu ny 6uc uISt UlVlu0HuS OIL
the fair association, or by Individual
the meeting last week promised to be of
ten men who should pay the 50, 500 to
the narrOw-guage whenever it has
earned the bounty.
-.sz THERE Is LITTLE DOUBT
that the whole bounty of $500 mile will
be raised for the road as fast as it is
built. The entire bonus was pledged
in Papid City within twenty-fours after
Mr.. Chapman made his offer, and the
need and desire for narrow-guage con-
nections with the inner hills is even
greater now with her people than it was
then. The truth about the whole mat
appointed at the delay to begin grading
on the road, and that they vent their
Impotence upon Mr.. Chapman, and the
action of last week was meant as spur
to him as much as benefit to the OBJ
jectS of the hasty appropriation.
Mr.. Chapman is man who has made
several business successes of some mag
nitude, and no failures in his own oper-
atiOns. One of his first operations was
the organization of the first manufac-
terry of glassware in st. Louis, from
Which has grown the Great Western,
Crystal and half a dozen other success
full companies. The parent company
made Mr.. Chapman rich man at the
age of twenty-five. He was large
wholesale grocer in Omaha and is
quarter of million ahead ON Omaha
real estate. If he does not make sue
cess of the narrow guage railway it will
be his first failure. he says. He was
one of the first instigators of the street
railway and the electric light companies
heFe-two of the best paying companies
in Rapid City-and is the largest share
holder in the railway. BE is also large
Shareholder in the Hotel Harvey. He
has invested $4,000 in and around
Rapid City, and considers it a bet, that
this will be place of $4,000 population
within five years. The place is better
off for every such man it can secure for
a citizen and investor.